Possible Cartooning Sideline

Well, today I spent over an hour on Pinterest looking at selections under the term 'home made shrinky dinks' for ideas.  I really like the fact any clear #6 recyclable plastic container will shrink down same as that expensive set of Shrinky Dink sheets at virtually no cost.  

Coming up to speed with the basics was easy.
     No microwave use
     Permanent markers and color pencils
     Rough up one side with sandpaper or rub against the concrete outside on the driveway
     Heat gun or 350 degrees in the oven, watch to see the shrinkage completion
     You can fold it over when hot, making 3D fish and birds
     Hole punch BEFORE you shrink
     Lay colored side up
     8 inches width shrinks down to 3 1/2 inches wide

I saved a lot of pins to my Pinterest account for it, including packaging and display ideas that others have used.  Making my cartoon cat characters as shrinky dinks is a good idea down the road.  Sturdy, black & white or color, necklace or charm use, nice ideas!

Spreading The Joy

Well, at least I'd LIKE to.  My local vet clinic has had me as a client for over 20 years and they've always been nice, I want to give back to them in some way and thought that doing up framed cartoons for them might be a good way to go.

The Dollar Store has black frames with glass (acrylic) in them, and I think I'm going to go through my cartoons and print up pairs of comic strips for each person. Each 8x10" frame is large enough to showcase two strips.  

All I need to do is photocopy the right works onto card stock paper, maybe hand tint them with watercolor, and take them over.  Once I call and ask how many people work there, that is.  One of the vets had asked me if I drew Siamese cartoons, she's come across a LOT of fat Siamese and thought that would be a fun thing to try to explain in comic format.  

I did come up with a nice one, four panels in each of the two strips.  The Siamese trying to explain away that she's fluffy while the smaller cats take verbal pot shots at her (with yo momma jokes among other things) and the final panel of her trying to reach them with her claws, saying 'if I could reach you, you'd be dead' as they all cluster just out of reach.  It might sound like it but it's not actually being mean, the expressions on the cats tones it down.

I Got A New Strip Idea While Watching THE MUMMY

My ‘movie’ I put in today to watch (nothing else was on TV tonight) was the Brendan Fraiser movie The Mummy from years ago (the Tom Cruise one wasn’t worth watching by the way).  

I got an inspiration from it for a new cartoon with the cats.  There was one line in the movie that made me stop the DVD and go get a pen and paper to do it up right away.  In the scene the hero was underground and trying to open a sarcophagus and his companion said ‘what do we do now?’ and he answered “rescue the girl, kill the bad guy and save the world”.  

Yes, I got a good visualization off that of my two mad scientist cats sitting in a box, one says to the other ‘what are we doing this time’ ‘We’re Adventurers, we’ll rescue the girl, fight the bad guy and save the world’.  

Second panel has both of them look to their left where the Siamese is sitting there sleeping.  

Last panel – ‘well that part was easy’ and his companion now has slitted eyes, says ‘TOO easy’ and behind them is Marcus looming large.

Three Little Words - Spark A String Of Strips

"I Smell Fear"

I was at the mall today and walked through the old Spencer's Gifts shop looking at the stuff nobody really buys anymore.  They had a string of T-Shirts on the wall, one of which was from Bob's Burgers TV show with the girl with the pink bunny ears and the words "I smell fear" on it. 

Bingo!  I could see Marcus telling his owner that with a HUGE smile on his face, and what would spark fear is any owner trying to pill their cat who knows full well a pill is coming.  It didn't take more than 30 seconds to work out that one of the cats gets an upper respiratory infection and then another.... making it a chore to dose each of them daily, and when Marcus comes down with it too he's very savvy about not letting himself get pilled.  I can do maybe 3 or 4 strips off this one idea easily. 

And for sneezing cats, instead of 'achoo' I think a more cat appropriate sound would be 'snit!' since they do it so delicately.  Of course a spray of fluid accompanies it (as any owner knows who has had a cat sneeze in their face unexpectedly).

So........THAT'S where some artists/writers get ideas from